‘SERIOUSLY HARMFUL’ FOX LOSES LIBEL CASE
Actor Laurence vows to appeal
LAURENCE Fox has lost a High Court libel battle with two people he called paedophiles online.
The actor-turned-politician was sued by former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal over a row on social media site X in October 2020.
Mr Fox libelled Mr Blake and former Rupaul’s Drag Race contestant Crystal, real name Colin Seymour, in a row that began as a conversation about Sainsbury’s marking Black History Month.
Judge Mrs Justice Collins Rice said
Mr Fox’s words were “seriously harmful, defamatory and baseless”.
Reclaim Party founder Fox countersued the pair and broadcaster Nicola Thorp over tweets accusing him of racism. Mrs Justice Collins Rice dismissed the counter-claim yesterday.
But she did not make a ruling on whether describing Mr Fox as a racist was a substantially true statement.
She said: “The entire case is, in that sense at least, all about contested views of what does and does not amount to being ‘a racist’.”
Crystal said after the verdicts: “I took no joy in bringing this case.
“Mr Fox could have made this go away very early on with a meaningful apology and settlement.” Ms Thorp said in a statement on X: “It’s time that Mr Fox accepted that any damage to his reputation is entirely his own doing.” Outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr Fox said: “We’re going to have to go back to court, to appeal, to get a meaning of this word.
“What is a racist? Every single person in this country knows what a racist is, except the people that dominate every single national institution.”